Christmas Cards

One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is receiving greetings in the mail from friends and family.

In previous years I have hung colorful ribbons in our kitchen windows and clipped cards to them with clothes pins (see this post). However, this year I decided to change things up just a little...

I took three decorative knobs from Anthropolgie and had Donald put them on a wall in the front entry. From each knob I tied decorative, striped ribbon and clipped on some clothes pins. I love having a wall of Christmas cards greeting me each time I walk through the front door. So cheerful!

And once Christmas has come and gone... you better believe there will be paper crane garlands hanging from those knobs!

 

Holly  

Jolly

The List

I found this list laying next to the television. 

It belongs to Lorelai. 

 

It reads: 

1. furby 

2. gymnastics close/eicuentmente 

3. pillow pet (that lites up) 

4. webkinz 

5. barbie toys and some barbie 

6. boots 

7. art suplise 

8. garbeg (for my room) 

9. Amarican girl doll (mary grace) 

10. Art ezle 

11. camra 

12. chapter books 

13. miky mous stuft anamols 

14. twinkle litse (for my room) 

15. cloths 

16. Zoo Zoo Pets 

17. Pencle sharpener 

18. little table (for my lamp) 

19. watch 

20. plato 

My favorite is #2. That is one heck of a creative way to spell 'equipment'! Can tell they have been studying words that end in 'mente' in Spanish class? Can you also tell from her spelling that she has never studied English in school? Only Spanish. Never fear...she'll catch up :)

Also, I should clarify #8. She doesn't actually want garbage...but rather a garbage can (to throw away all the little scraps of paper that are strewn all over the floor after she gets crafty.)

p.s. Lorelai is a very good girl. I think she might just get a few things from her list...

Her First Gig!

 

Alexandra has her first guitar gig this weekend!

When: Saturday 

Where:Roasters Coffee Bar in Richland, WA.

Time: 3:00 pm.

She is ridiculously talented.

(If I do say so myself) 

(And I do)

You simply must come!

 

 Photography by Charlene Hardy

Nutcrackers

"Forward,

 March!" 

 

The Sorenson 

Nutcracker Collection. 

Guarding the front entry way.

Prowlers, beware!

Paper Crane Wreath

Ever since June the girls and I have been folding paper cranes like crazy! They are all over our house...literally.

So naturally, I knew I had to find a way to incorporate them into our holiday decor.

What I came up with was simple yet festive:  

a paper crane wreath.

Supplies needed:

1) Folded cranes in a variety of red and green papers:

2) A Styrofoam wreath:

 

3) Straight pins:

 

Directions: 

1) Pin the cranes into the Styrofoam. 

Easy peasy.

 

2) Hang and enjoy!

 

Now go make one for yourself! 

Merry Christmas! 

Reminder: The drawing for the Claude Coats print will be tonight at 5 pm PST. Word around the campfire is that there was trouble with the entry form last week. They tell me that has now been fixed (I hope!). So if you tried to enter but couldn't, hop on over and give it another go. 

Good luck!

Click here to go enter. 

QE's Homemade Blended Formula

Elisabeth forgot how to eat two and a half years ago. Seizures stole that skill away from her. So we did what any parent of a modern-day-non-eater would do: got her a g-tube.

Since then - for two and a half years - I have been pouring a diet of PediaSure through that tube and into Elisabeth's tummy.

A pantry full of Pediasure.

PediaSure is fine and all - it has kept her alive - but the mother in me has been longing to give her something better. She deserves better.

So, my friend Taylor gave me a worksheet that helps to create a homemade blended formula using real, everyday foods.

I created a customized recipe for Elisabeth using:

• Wheat Bread 
• Brown Rice
• Yogurt
• Pineapple
• Cheerios
• Applesauce
• Green Beans
• Sweet Potatoes
• Avocado
• Hard Boiled Eggs
• Carrots
• Milk
• Peas
• Lettuce
• Beans
• Bananas
• Pumpkin
• Olive Oil
• Peanut Butter 

Then I blended it all together until it was in liquid form.

After I had created a delicious concoction, I poured it into freezer containers:

 

And voila! A weeks worth of healthy, liquified food for my little queen:

 

I can't even begin to tell you how good it feels to be feeding Elisabeth real foods. To know that she isn't living off of PediaSure. And...it saves me a few hundred dollars a month, at that! 

I should have done this years ago...


***Don't forget to enter to win the Claude Coats print! Details here.

Nutcracker Week!

Let there be curlers!!

 

[Yes, she is cast as an angel...]

Let there be Ringlets!!

   

Come this weekend and see these curls dance across the stage!

Performance information here.

Oh, Christmas Tree!

QE and Me 

by the 

Tree.

 

Behold her loooooong legs:

   

No mistletoe needed to smooch these cheeks! 

Win a Claude Coats Print!

 

As I have mentioned before, my grandfather, Claude Coats, was a Disney legend. He helped create much of the Disney magic that we all know and love: Snow White, Cinderella, Lady and the Tramp, and Peter Pan (to name a few). And not only did he create magic on the big screen, but he helped design some Disneyland favorites like Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion.

Needless to say, he was an artistic genius. 

Now for the exciting part (as if that wasn't exciting enough!) - ClaudeCoats.com is having another Christmas Giveaway this year! The winner, selected at random, will receive a full size print of the painting pictured below. Isn't it gorgeous!? 

 

So what are you waiting for!? 

Go win a Claude Coats print of your own. 

Hurry on over to ClaudeCoats.com and enter! 

Tell them Lisa sent you. 

 (Ha ha...not really. But you can if you want!)

 (Also, while you're there, you should browse through the available prints. There are some beauties!)

(They make great Christmas gifts!)

Growing: Part XI

We've almost made it! My final growing-out-my-hair post will be on New Years Day! And then who knows...maybe I'll chop it all off.

Or maybe...I'll grow it to my waist!

Time will tell...

[December]

A look back:

 

 [November]

  

 [October] 

 

[September]

 

[August]

 

 [July]

 

[June]

 

[May]

 

[April]

 

[March] 

[February]

 

[January]  

What's this all about?? Click here.